Photo: Zack Cook
By MARTY JAMES
Zack Cook resigned from his position as the head boys coach at Napa High School in April, but he's not done with basketball.
Cook is changing roles, as he is joining coach Paul DeBolt's staff at Napa Valley College as an assistant for women's basketball. Cook will continue as a full-time physical education and health teacher on the staff at Napa High and will take on additional work as an adjunct instructor in the kinesiology department at NVC.
In announcing the hiring of Cook, NVC Athletic Director Jerry Dunlap said, "We're very fortunate to have Zack join our women's basketball program. This is always something he had been interested in. I think this is a good opportunity for Zack to see if the community college level is the type of level he would like to maybe continue his coaching career at. Zack is going to be a big proponent of bringing local students in and getting them ready to transfer on to a four-year institution after they leave Napa Valley College."
In looking to turn its program around, NVC has already secured commitments from several players, including Nicole Gleeson, Anna Ghisletta, Charlotte Gerard, Perla Bautista and Ashley Vogen.
Gleeson, a Vintage High School graduate who was the Defensive Player of the Year on the Napa Valley Register's All-Napa County team as both a junior and senior, will transfer to Napa Valley after playing her freshman season of college basketball at Dominican University of California, a private NCAA-Division II school in San Rafael. Gleeson, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard, played in 17 games and averaged 3.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game during the 2019-20 season for Dominican. She made 11 starts and averaged 21.2 minutes per game.
As a senior, Gleeson averaged 9.7 points on 45 percent shooting, 4.5 rebounds, 4.1 steals, 2 assists and 1.5 blocks per game, helping Vintage to a 20-8 record and the Vine Valley Athletic League title. Vintage's season came to a close with a 57-41 loss to San Ramon Valley-Danville in the first round of the CIF North Coast Section Division I Championships.
Gleeson was named as the Defensive Player of the Year in the Monticello Empire League as a junior and in the VVAL as a senior. She was chosen as the co-Player of the Year at Vintage, as a senior.
Ghisletta and Gerard are Napa High graduates. Bautista and Vogen are Vintage graduates.
Ghisletta was named as a finalist for Player of the Year on the All-Napa County team after averaging 10.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game for Napa (12-15 overall, 6-6 VVAL). The Grizzlies lost in the first round of the CIF North Coast Section Division I Championships to American-Fremont, 69-44.
Gerard averaged 2.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game.
Vogen was named as a finalist for Player of the Year on the 2015-16 All-Napa County team. She averaged 7.1 points per game. She was named as one of Vintage's Block V Athletes of the Year in 2016.
A shortage of players – the result a combination of injuries and those who left the program – forced NVC to cancel the remainder of its 2019-20 season in mid-December, after playing just eight games during the nonconference schedule
Napa Valley began the season in early November with eight players. It was the first season of women's basketball for the Storm since the 2017-18 season.
The Storm lost all eight of its games, falling twice to Ohlone-Fremont (73-47 and 85-40), and losing to Modesto (84-32), American River-Sacramento (89-44), Las Positas-Livermore (66-39), Hartnell-Salinas (75-41), Los Medanos-Pittsburg (99-39), and Lassen-Susanville (104-30).
"I have a vision for the program, and I want to see it become something that's permanently strong, consistently competitive," said DeBolt, the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association State Coach of the Year (2000-2001 season), who spent 30 years as the head coach at Contra Costa College-San Pablo (1986-2016). "I want it to be a destination for women's basketball. Having Zack in our program is a huge part of that vision – someone of his character, his knowledge, and his background, is really going to benefit us.
"We're pretty excited. We're just going to do nothing but grow and get better. Our goal is to start a program that is going to be consistently strong and competitive and fun to watch. We're going to spread the court. We're going to attack the basket. Shoot some 3's. Take advantage of our player's skills inside. I think people will like it."
Cook stepped down as Napa's coach after the 2019-20 season, with Napa (7-19 overall, 3-9 VVAL) tying for fifth place in the league.
Cook led Napa (23-6 overall, 12-0 VVAL) to the league title and to the playoffs during the 2018-19 season. The Grizzlies lost to James Logan-Union City, 85-76, in the first round of the CIF North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs.
He was named as the Napa Valley Register's All-Napa County Coach of the Year.
"Paul really wanted somebody that was local and already embedded in our basketball community, which obviously Zack is," said Dunlap. "They met several times and just hit it off. Learning from (DeBolt), who has been very successful and has got 30-plus years of experience, I think has also kind of re-energized Zack a little bit. I know Paul has been re-energized by having Zack around.
"Zack's done a heck of a job, as well as Paul, just recruiting our local kids, and has gotten a lot of commitments from some girls in this community, and some that are a couple years out of high school."
Cook said he is looking forward to working with DeBolt and learning all he can about coaching from one of the winningest head coaches in state history. DeBolt directed Contra Costa to 11 Bay Valley Conference titles and 19 postseason appearances. The Comets finished as the state runner-up at the California Community College Athletic Association state tournament in both 2001 and 2003.
He led Contra Costa to three state final four berths, four state elite eight berths, and seven state Sweet 16 berths, compiling a 562-380 record. He is a three-time CCCWBCA Junior College Region 8 Coach of the Year and an eight-time BVC Coach of the Year.
"It's a new chapter that I'm looking forward to," said Cook. "I'm really excited to coach with Paul DeBolt. He's a great guy. We hit it off right away. He obviously has tons and tons of experience. Paul has done it for years – he knows what he's doing. I'm really excited to work with him and learn from him.
"This opportunity was just good timing for me. I get to be an assistant again, and at the same time I get my foot in the door at the college. We're definitely going to have a full squad. We're definitely going to finish the season. And we plan to be competitive right away, too."
Cook said he is proud of the work that he and his staff – Greg Johnson, Brad Swim, Paul Dugoni – did with the boys program at Napa High.
"I think we built a strong culture," he said. "We had some success. We had some struggles. But I think the biggest thing I'm proud of is the relationships we built with our players, the fact that they stay in touch with us. That's really what it's about. There are some kids that I'm pretty close with that will be seniors.
"When I took the job, if you would have asked me, how long I'd be there, I would have said forever. But the high school sports landscape is sort of changing."
Cook graduated in 1996 from Napa High. He played for longtime coach Denny Lewis, starting two seasons. He was twice selected All-Napa County and was twice named honorable mention All-Monticello Empire League.
After coaching in both the boys and girls basketball programs at NHS for 11 years, he took over as the head coach for the girls basketball team at Vintage. He was with the Crushers for one season.
He taught P.E. and health at Harvest Middle School for three years. He also taught adaptive P.E. at elementary schools throughout the Napa Valley Unified School District.
"He's a solid head coach," said DeBolt. "He's a Napa kid, and that's really good for us. It's a perfect fit, in my opinion. He's coached both varsity boys and girls.
"He wants to coach beyond the high school level. It's been one of his goals. He and I have spent a lot of time talking. We've spent some time together. He's a lot like I am – he's pretty hands-on, detailed.
"I would say, if I'm not a little worried about something, then I'm not doing my job. He's the same way. We're both always just trying to help these young women. The best thing is that our coaching philosophies, the way we treat people and the goals that we have for our student athletes, are pretty much the same. I'm thrilled to have him."
Cook graduated from Sonoma State, earning a degree in kinesiology. He got his master's in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University in Irvine, Calif.
Cook and his wife, Jamie, and their two sons, Cade, 8, and Carson, 5, make their home in the Browns Valley area of Napa.
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association, Associated Press Sports Editors, and California Prep Sports Media Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in September of 2019.